There's no doubt that the buzz around Beats is loud these days. The brand fronted by beatmaster general Dr Dre and record producer extraordinaire Jimmy Iovine has done wonders to revitalise the concept of quality audio in the digital age, which is to be commended, even if its products aren't the very hi-est of fi.

Its distinctive red-cabled headphones (actually made by Monster) are popular on the high street, and its audio processing technology is making its way into all sorts of gadgets, from HTC's One series smartphones, to this rather stylish laptop from HP.

DesignAt 2kg and 32mm depth, it's really too chunky to be an ultrabook, but it has a fetching look nonetheless, decked out in matt black rubberised plastic with red trim and packing a good array of inputs and some quality speakers. That big red "b" will count for a lot with Beats fans too we expect.

Specs and featuresInside, it packs in 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an Intel Core i5-2450M processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and AMD Radeon HD 7470M graphics. Not a bad round-up for the price in other words, And offers an alternative, both aesthetically and economically to the glass-topped, £1,200 HP Envy Spectre.

The 14-inch display is bright and crisp, delivering an okay resolution of 1366x768 pixels, but colours are perhaps not as full-blooded as we might have hoped, and movies can sometimes look a little bit flat as a result.

The keyboard is made of the same tactile plastic as the casing and feels good to use. The trackpad wasn't always as sensitive as it could be though, with the mouse occasionally jumping around quite alarmingly. Still, it supports multi-touch gestures and there's a handy features to double tap the top left hand corner to disable it.

AudioThe version of this machine we looked at comes with a pair of Beats by Dr Dre Solo Headphones with ControlTalk. Beats Audio controls allow you to adjust the level of processing both for listening and recording, separately.

The benefits of Beats Audio are largely a matter of taste. It tends to boost the low end of the sound, and doesn't necessarily do a whole lot for clarity or transparency in the mid- or high-end.

But it does seem to be able to up the volume without distortion, and if your taste is towards the dance end of the spectrum, it'll certainly give you more than you'd expect from most laptop speakers. If you're more of a classical or acoustic jazz head however, the benefits are less obvious.

So why HP chose to position the speakers on the underside of the casing where they're almost certain to be muffled, is a mystery. It sounds okay on a desk -- but what happens if you want to listen in bed, or rest it on your lap without having to spread your legs? You can imagine the results: a bit muffled.

PerformanceThis isn't really a gaming machine. Just loading games took longer than expected, and while playing Portal on default settings, it only managed to deliver frame rates around the 100fps mark (Samsung's Series 9 for instance, delivered closer to 140). It delivered a PCMark performance benchmark rating of 1,702, which puts it behind the HP Envy Spectre, Samsung Series 5 and Asus Zenbook. That said, it converted our standard 11-minute movie for iTunes in a blistering two mins and 38 secs. In short: fast, but not with 3D gaming.